White Heat
by joe1021
Summary: While The Titans were away the rats came out to play. A Story of Blood,sweat and tears
1. Down Time

My first fic, New to this kind of thing so just go with it.

Disclaimer: I Dont Own A Damn Thing

**Note**Aftermath of _"Things Change"_

Everything was returning to normal, the usual formula of bad guy plus mayhem times the fact of a team of skilled young heroes divided by the factor of unusual circumstances with occasional collateral damage equals as what comes as close to normal for the residents that reside in Jump City. In conclusion everything was fine, the threat was extinguished by the ever vigilant young hero's, few were injured, none were killed, bad guy in jail or completely gone, everyone happy.

Well, maybe not everyone.

"I'll be outside" his voice was solemn and low as Beast Boy leaned his body outside the tower's entrance before completely disappearing behind the large frame of the doorway.

"Whats with him?" Cyborg noticed how his best friend's cheery self seem somewhat deflated.

"He thinks he saw Terra" Robin told him firm, yet a shred of doubt could be heard in the waver of his voice.

"Ya think he's tellin the truth?"

"I dont really know, I mean, the last time we saw her she was pretty much...well...dead?" Robin said somewhat unsure of how to say it.

"She was turned to stone, not really dead...Well not much alive either...I'm confused, still I wonder...that is if he's not having some sort of flashback or hallucination, then...what happened?"

Cyborg seemed to stare off into space, mulling over the thoughts on what could shake up his little buddy so much. All the years the two have known each other Beast Boy was known to be prone to periods of silent contemplation, sometimes while wandering around the tower making maintenance checks and structural adjustments Cyborg would find him perched upon the side of the roof in the form of an eagle using his eagle eyes to stare out to something beyond the horizon above the sea. Cyborg never thought much of it, but rather let his friend be other than disturb him, everyone should be allowed they're own alone time no matter how close of a friend you can be.

"He just needs time to recover,...it took him along time to get over it once...and if those feelings resurfaced once again, he's going to just need to sort it out on his own the only thing we can do to help is to just let him be for the time being"

To Robin, being the leader of his team meant much more than training, and fighting. The Titans are a family, they take care of each other and watch each other's backs, it also meant knowing how to treat your Allies as friends and your teammates as Brothers, each of them had a bond towards eachother. In a way the team kept them all balanced, kept them from veering off the path of righteousness towards one of self destruction each of them were prone to, even Robin himself, a leader with a confidence as strong as steel could just as easily lose his sight without his family to guide him through unfamiliar halls.

"All right man,...understood, listen Imma go head into the city and pick up some parts for a project I'm working on, anything you'll need I could pick up on the way?" Cyborg offered.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need some Pepto-Bismol"

"Umm...Sure,...Ya know what...im not even gonna ask, See ya later man" Waved cyborg as he left to the garage

Robin nodded him off as he made his way to the front and make sure the doors were open and Beast Boy wouldn't lock himself outside...Again. He was interrupted when a beeping noise made itself known from the side of his utility belt.

Flipping open his communicator he was blinded for a moment with bright red radiant glow that he seemed to lose himself him in, so red...so deep..So...so

"Robin?...Are you there? I Cannot properly See you" A sweet sugary voice made itself known across the clear channel of the communicator, which only made Robin's pulse beat slightly faster

"Uh Star?..." Robin asked lamely.

"Oh Robin!" Starfire's burnt orange face made itself present on the screen, great green marbles as eyes.

"How's it goin star?"

"I have prepared your meal, you promised to me once we finally came home"

"Oh yeah...How could I forget?...I'll be right up star" Grinding his teeth into a somewhat fractured smile Robin told her.

"Oh Just Wonderful!" Starfire said before cutting the line.

"Yeah...just...Wonderful" he sulked off with a hard cold feeling at the bottom of his gut.

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The waves of the salty ocean held no mercy as it battered itself against the walls of the rocky shore at the edge of Titans Island, foam licked the smoothed edges of the boulder where a lone emerald tiger lay as its fur was was moistened by mist colored in the mid air as a rainbow while the setting sun layed its last rays of light upon its surface.

The tiger lay pensive and still, its whiskers twitched now when a light breeze carresed his cheeks. His Eyes scanned the horizon. The beast's appearence looked confident, almost prideful, as a statue would. It was strong and independent, it held its head high above the rocks glaring at the sea as a feirce predator would before striking its prey.

Inside the mind of the beast lay a different matter, In the tiger's mind lay the still form of a defeated young boy. The last few months were very painful. Over the course of just a few weeks old wounds were torn upon, the pain of the past and the mix of present situations seem to haunt him. Months later his greif would grow ten-fold, repeats of past mistakes cornered the edges of his mind. After he saw her again things became increasingly more difficult. Emotional scars reopened, old feelings aroused themselves, anger, confusion, hurt, surprise, mostly he was releived she was still alive. The fact remained though, how did she come back? why is she so different? what does slade have to do with it?

Yet another confusing puzzle piece, slade's interference was way out of character. It was as if he was protecting terra from her past. It doesn't make sense and to him it probably never will. He remembered he fought slade, and won but at the same time he knew it wasn't really the original man him and the team fought long ago. He had so many questions with too little people to turn to for answers. Beast boy thought about telling robin about the slade incident but it seemed like the way they met it was for the last time like he was saying goodbye while he spit in his face. He didn't need to worry his friends, besides after all that's happened, they deserve a good break.

"I just need to move on" was his last thought before he feel into a deep sleep upon the shore of a falling sun.

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In one particular dark corner of the tower hovered a girl, shrouded in shadows veiled within a mist of blackness, only the bright moons of violet reflected what little light was left in the room. Breathing slowly steadily and calmly.

Raven let go till she withdrew into herself to a place where she could glide gently beside a window of her soul. Here she was content, full and at peace with all her troubles, her past, and of her undefined future.

This time was different she was searching for something; an uneasiness was about the air every which way she went. Subtle changes made themselves known through out the atmosphere of the city. The air seemed more thick, the city itself seemed to blend in with the shadows of the clouds whereas before it shown with a vibrancy of shine and color that seemed to make it seem as if the streets where lined with silver. Even the people themselves seemed to become less vibrant, lacking the once colorful quality that was common in the citizens.

Raven knew how the cycle's of life worked, it was constantly changing, Time was inevitable, over enough time mountains became dust, oceans become deserts, forests fade, stars burn out, and planets crumble away. That's how the universe works, that's how things are made never to last, Universal law, has no insurance, no backup plan. In a way it was progress for new and better outcomes. A brutal play of meta-physical survival of the fittest.

This change however was not natural, the world was revolving to slow for this kind of change to take place, her senses were in an uproar, a presence was making it self known. A presence dark and foreboding something that almost seemed to rival that of the feeling she felt when her father entered into existence.

Things were changing, she knew this, and could the team handle this? She thought.

Raven tried her hardest to find the source of all this uneasiness, but to no avail. The stress of concentrating on a single beacon soon became too much for the young girl and came out from within the depths of her soul only to retreat into a sleepless night.


	2. Nora Gets Her Gun

My first fic, New to this kind of thing so just go with it.

Disclaimer: I Dont Own A Damn Thing

**Note** Aftermath of _"Things Change"_

_Yadda yadda and some shit, this is just an intro and something...i dont really know what it is, its basically just a brief description...or long one of an OC of mine, you may be familiar with her story, im very Un-original and my Grammar and punctuation skills are highly lacking. So just go with it and be very dissapointed in the Lack of Titans in this chapter, otherwise dont read it and tell me to suck off and what not and i'll be happy._

**The Noir of Nora**

Just because the cats have left to chase off all the rats, the roaches have a free roam of the streets. With the cats gone and rats spread far and wide, the mice are left to take up the fight against the insects.

Jump City Police Officer Nora Prentiss discovered in the wake of the Titans disappearance, a wave of unsteady nerves fell upon the people. Fear stood out the most out of all the worries the city had after the hero's absence, fear that without the Titans around the giants that dwelled in the shadows would take over, fear of the safety of their homes, their children, their lives, and their freedom.

Nora has long been familiar with the escapades created by masked madmen and "stupor hero's" that plague the skies and pollute the atmosphere with a false sense of security and a thin veil of hope that crumbles when ever the hero trips over a rock sending the city and its inhabitants into a blind frenzy of panic. Senior Officer of one of Gothams most prominent and Infamous precinct, Nora knew enough on what to keep an eye open for. Working against "The Bat" and on occasion along side him she learned the inner workings of the "Costumed Circuit". Harvey Bullock taught her the basics on what to expect in Gotham and the world at large.

Orphaned at a young age by her parents who couldn't afford to keep her she went on to become another statistic of Gotham's already declining Child Services. During her stay in the Orphanage she was abused by many of the young boys in the home for being the only girl orphaned there at the time being, quickly developing a tomboyish attitude and a mean streak she battled her way to the top of the food chain among the system of the child care services. After the orphanage was burned down in what was called an accident, but later revealed to be part of a deal with the police to burn down useless parts of the neighborhood to make way for Mafia owned corporations to build offices on cheap land, Nora was left to fend for herself. She found herself a place to stay in an abandoned subway terminal. Starving and without a family for support, Nora turned to shoplifting clothes and food to survive earning herself a rap sheet that most crooks in the game would be proud of.

She stumbled upon Harvey while in the process of knocking over racks of candy while pretending to trip and scoop up what her little hands could carry, she was caught by the shopkeeper's hawk eyes and was thrown in Bullock's lap who at the time was one of the best Detective-Specialists in robbery. Bullock discovered her reputation and couldnt help but laugh at the similarities he saw of himself in the plucky little girl's personality. Placing her in the care of Dr. Leslie Thompkins who taught the girl the basics of being formal and honor. Under the teachings of Dr. Thompkins, Nora was taught the foundations respect, and truth in every aspect of your presentation. Nora learned also Thompkins held a close relationship with "The Bat", whom Nora heard about during her journey's in the streets of Crime Alley, and because of her reputation to shoplift she learned to fear the Batman. Dr. Thompkins or "Leszie" as Nora called her would often meet with "The Bat" once every year, on a day she said "Created a legend". Nora stilled feared "The Bat" and stayed in the shadows during his visit, she would always suspect that he knew she was their, and those white eyes of his would launch out his skull to consume her. Growing up looking toward Harvey Bullock for direction never helped stifle her fear of "The Bat", with Bullock often ranting on how "The Bat" was just as crazy as the guy's he put away. Nora would run to Harvey for protection everytime there was a sighting of "The Bat".

However Harvey never liked children much but ever since he saw Nora rubbing her dirty fingers along that guilty face that held so much broken innocence he couldn't help but see himself amongst the reflection of her eyes, ever since then Harvey came what resembled closest to a father to her. Nora would seek out Harvey during hard times and often break into his dilapidated apartment just to sleep in while he was at work. Bullock was at first reluctant to take handle of such a responsibility and let a little girl rummage through his things, but over time she let herself discover the real Harvey and in return harvey let himself soften up. She was what Harvey liked to call "One of the good roaches that I live with". His crusty exterior was overlooked by a young eager Nora who enjoyed hearing of his dangerous exploits with an awe filled heart. Nora is one of the many factors it took to turn a once bumbling drunk dim-wit detective into an upstanding and respected officer.

Nora Prentiss joined the GCPD. She was sworn in as a probationary patrolman on September 11, 1996. She was handed her sheild and immediately went out and got it replated so it would be shiny and garner respect. Her swearing in was the culmination of a lifetime dream of becoming what she respected most: a cop. Nora was commissioned as a patrolman for the GCPD on March 5, 1997, a job she would have for two years. She was first assigned to patrol in the 81st precint; She then worked for the BCI for two years, doing jobs such as filing fingerprints. Nora was later assigned to work plainclothes, where she encountered widespread corruption. After numerous failed attempts to report this corruption within the established police and governmental framework, she finally went to the _Gotham City Times_, which published an exposé.

Nora's career as a plainclothes police detective working in Gotham and the Crime Alley to expose vice racketeering was short-lived, however, because she consistently avoided taking part in the corruption. Nora refused to take bribes for "looking the other way," and risked her own safety to expose those who did. In 1999, she reported "credible evidence of widespread, systematic police corruption." However, bureaucracy slowed down her efforts, until she connected with another cop, and long time mentor Harvey Bullock, who helped her in her anti-corruption efforts.

In 2000, Nora went public on police corruption, speaking of bribery and kickbacks. Partially in response to this, Gotham City Mayor Hamilton Hill established the GCP Commission to investigate the assertions. Nora received numerous death threats, having testified against a former partner. Somehow they knew of Nora's supposedly secret meetings with top police investigators. It was not until April 2000, however, when the _Gotham Times_ published a front-page story on Nora that Mayor Hamilton Hill took action and appointed the GCP Commission to investigate.

Nora was shot during a drug bust on February 3, 2001, during a stake out in Crime Alley. While attempting to force her way into an apartment where a drug dealer had taken refuge, Nora was shot in the face at point blank range with a .22 LR handgun. The bullet penetrated her cheek just below the eye and lodged at the top of her jaw; she lost balance, fell to the floor, and began to drown in her own blood. Nora's colleagues failed to place a "1013," a dispatch to police headquarters indicating that an officer has been shot. Instead, Nora was saved by an elderly Hispanic woman who lived in an apartment adjacent to the one being used by the suspects; the woman called 911 and reported that a woman had been shot, and then stayed with Nora to help keep her alive until an ambulance arrived. A police squad car arrived prior to the ambulance, however, and the officers, unaware of the bloodied Nora's identity, took her to a nearby hospital.

Nora was deafened in her left ear by the gunshot, which severed an auditory nerve, and has suffered chronic pain from fragments lodged in her brain. She survived, however, and continued to testify for the GCP Commission. While she was sick in bed recovering from a gunshot wound, the police department harassed her with hourly bed checks.

The circumstances surrounding Nora's shooting quickly came into question. Nora, who was armed and holding a 9mm Luger during the drug raid, had only been shot after briefly turning away from the suspect when she realized that the three officers who had accompanied her to the scene had turned around and left the hallway, bringing into question if Nora had actually been brought to the apartment by her colleagues to be executed.

On May 3, 2001, _Gotham Metro Magazine_ published an article about Nora titled "Portrait Of An Honest Cop". In September 2001, _Gadfly Magazine_ publish an article Nora which also included all the details about how she was shot in the face. In October 2001, Nora testified before the GCP Commission: "Through my appearance here today." "I hope that police officers in the future will not experience the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to for the past five years at the hands of my superiors because of my attempt to report corruption... We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around." "The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which honest police officers can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers." Nora Prentiss was the first police officer in the history of the Gotham to step forward to report and subsequently testify openly about widespread, systemic police corruption payoffs amounting to millions of dollars. Allowing for the rare times where Batman for once wasnt a beacon for hero's in Gotham. Afterwards devoloping a growing relationship with Commisioner Jim Gordan.

After a year long and painful recovery, she soon returned to a new reformed GCPD where she was offered a spot as a Chief of police but declined to once again work in plainclothes as a simple Detective keeping the hole underneath her eye as a reminder that she see's "Corruption in the very souls of people". She worked the beat over in Gotham for a while alongside Bullock in what she remembers as the best time she spent "cleaning the streets". She was referred to Jump by Bullock who figured she deserved a place where she could "Bring honesty to the west". Nora was inducted into the JCPD shortly after the city recovered from the "Terra Incident" in which a former Titan member went rogue destroying half the city and aiding in the plots of world renown mercenary Slade Wilson, A.K.A Deathstroke The Terminator.

Nora is now in charge of a unit known through out the city dubbed as "The Clean-up crew". They were responsible for all of the mess left in the wake of one of the many battles that ravaged the city on a weekly basis, taking account of the total cost of collateral damage and keeping a personal estimate over which side caused the most destruction, which Nora would say the Titans would always "prevail in defeating more mail boxes and lamp posts" than the actual enemy. Nora was also responsible for all the paperwork that each battled produced, investigations that often collected dust thanks to the resident "Bat-Boy", the annual budget that transferred funds to a foundation that sponsored the businesses and citizens hurt most by Meta-Human inflicted damages, and the charity that sponsors the living conditions of the Titans and maintenance of their watchtower. The Police of Jump where often shadows compared to the press the Titans created, often they were the butt end of many jokes concerning "Where was the police?" and "Another Holiday for the Cops of Jump". Little respect was thrown their way, many officers quit and left the city after constant budget cuts and lay-off's, the salary was dwindling and becoming more and more volunteer type work. Other than the Major Crimes Unit and the Quick Response Team that aided the Titans, constructing the cells in which to hold the unique and most dangerous of the villains of the city, the morale of the JCPD was low and many would suffer boredom or constant depression. Nora stood out to take control amidst this.

In the time the titans "Abandoned" their hometown the attitude of the city changed as soon as they discovered that not only did the once famous Teen Titans leave, also the psychotic and souped-up criminals as well. The streets were desolate with only the vague shadows of people clinging to the walls in fear of the hand of the unknown catching up to them. Parents kept their children indoors, playgrounds empty with swings gliding along the wind as the ghost of a memory of innocence that decorated its chained seat rotted away in the untouched grains of the sandbox. The Alleys were once again home to the strays and the unwanted, without a shadowy presence of evil lurking within its darkness, no more scheming and foolish masterminds and magical menaces, no more science run amok, no more mechanical misfits, no more monsters, no more fear.

It seemed as if the Titans had done Jump City a favor and decided to take themselves out of the picture along with every other trouble that seemed to stem from their presence. Peace was becoming rampant; hope was spreading like wildfire in the streets. The mayor decided that if this trend kept up, that in a few months of planning the city could go through some major improvements, and become one of the many metropolises dreamed of in one of those spiffy 50's era type comic books with skyscrapers, advanced education and child care systems, and a steady civil government uninterrupted by the psychosis of such madmen and meta-human threats.

Nora took it upon herself to lead this city into a new era of peace and justice, using her connections with Gotham she quickly organized a unit of highly respected Sergeants to add to the ranks of "The Clean-Up Crew". With help from various non-profit foundations and the co-operation of the Jump City Government, Nora quickly brought forth a reign of peace that stenciled in a golden age for the future of Jump and its present. Plans were yielded to construct a monument to the once 'Hero's" in homage to the Titans in favor of a large Studio-Apartment Complex funded by the new Jump City "Tabula Rasa" policy to house the homeless and create a family oriented environment in which to raise their children.

Nora Personally took head of the Jump's Child Care/Protection Services and saw to it that none of the anxiety she encountered growing up in the system never befell the new and promising future of Jump. However in all this Nora was unaware of the familiar turn the city was about to take.

While plans were being made to improve jump city, others where planning to take it over. A new Mafia was being born, an organized population of criminals, thieves, and killers. This Mafia was formed under many heads and various leaders who each held control within their equally divided territories. They already had their hands in some of the already established legitimate businesses such as gambling, building construction, trash hauling, and dock loading enterprises, which operate in parallel with and provide cover for drug trafficking, money laundering, prostitution, extortion, hijacking, fraud, and insider trading, among many other basic criminal activities.

In order for a criminal organization to prosper, some degree of support is required from the society in which it lives. Thus, it is often necessary to corrupt some of its most respected members, most commonly achieved through bribery, blackmail, and the establishment of symbiotic relationships with legitimate businesses. Judicial and police officers and legislators are especially targeted for control by the Mafia. Among the members laid off, disgruntled former police officers and municipal workers lined the ranks of the new Mafia, they helped pave the road for the Mafia to grow and form underneath and between the edges of the jump city, using its connections to bribe the new police and government officials.

At first it was hard to believe that with Jump City's history, that there was little or no history of drugs or drug abuse. The City itself was prime example of "Squeaky Clean". This of course needed to be corrected; introducing such products into a clean society would be the hardest part of the job or in this case creating such a need for the product.

They tried to market heroin first, leading them to discover an otherwise overlooked area of the city where the homeless eventually found shelter. It was a district set up of old warehouses and crumbling office buildings, the rusted remains of an old fashioned trolley car and its station remained intact but battered. Many of the buildings looked as though a raging fire swept up and ate at most of the streets, destroying many foundations. The edge of the district was bordered between the local university, and the abandoned docks no longer used thanks to the progress of shipping technology.

While trying to market the heroin, they encountered a problem. Nobody wanted it. The homeless considered themselves good citizens of jump whether the city acknowledged them or not, the stray teenage population never got hooked, the product stayed stale and the organization was losing money fast, if they didn't come up with the a strategy to create a market, the whole group would fall apart.

Most of the former cops took it upon them selves to make distribution easier, they would pose as a Pharmaceutical company looking for teenagers to participate in a study of "Anti-Depressants" and pay them 50 dollars for each drug they "Tested". Small measured doses of morphine where introduced into the subjects that suffered from "Clinical depression". Methamphetamines were given to the subjects that joined the "Study" for the money. The Teens were paid after the tests were over and told to come back in two days in which to make observations and be tested for other such "Medicines". By dividing the introduction of drugs into the society, each head member were given different drugs to market, where as one part distributed cocaine and cocaine only while another side of the city controlled the distribution Marijuana. Disguised as "legit" drug companies the Mafia carried out these studies directly under the nose of unsuspecting police officials and ever vigilant Nora Prentiss. Over time the introductions of the drugs paid off, the teens kept coming back hoping for more drugs and more money but were told the tests were over, but the "Doctors" would be able to give them prescriptions for the "Medication" they needed if they paid enough for it. Week after week the systematic corruption of the youth of Jump City was reaching its ultimate goal, "creating the market".

It didnt take long for nora to notice the stale stench of corruption polluting the air once again, she saw it in the shadows and the overall mood of the city had changed. The drop out rate skyrocketed and the the hospitals were being filled with cases of people suffering from overuses of morphine and methamphetamines, as well as other narcotics along with strange cases of many OD's coming in with painful symptoms and nerve damage that doctors failed to tie to the drug usage.

Nora saw the shadow of gotham looming overhead and it didnt take a genius to figure out what was changing, and to top it all off just like nothing had ever happened they came back. It was a silent return and Nora knew damned well she wasnt going to be pushed aside just because a couple of kids decided to play dress-up.

No.

Nora was going to start the relationship with the titans with a bang, long and hard.


	3. Note

_This story sucks, the first chapter is bland and filled with pointless descriptive nonsense, the second chapter is just plain disappointing, the introduction of Nora was too long, and the intro of the Mafia organization as well was a bit anticlimactic, I would delete this but I don't know how, although I would appreciate it if some authors out could possibly give me some pointers,_

_Ive got a couple of ideas in my head on some good projects, but I'm not touching on them until I have a better grasp the characters and better writing techniques._


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